Nuts and bolts for Tiger’s Thursday at Riviera, the best event on the PGA Tour

Tiger Woods is back in Los Angeles at Riviera, the best event on the PGA Tour schedule. Here are your nuts and bolts for Thursday’s opening round.

*****UPDATE*****

We have a washout early on Thursday morning. They started the first round on time, but quickly called everyone off the course and suspended play less than an hour into it. The way things are going, the entire day may be a complete washout and the Tour will not have an update until 1 p.m. PT. It’s very likely that Tiger Woods will not even see the golf course in the opening round at Riviera.

Also, they will take the extreme and rare step of just restarting the entire round, canceling scores from the first two holes that the earliest tee times posted. The last time the Tour took this step was 2013 at the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston. This morning’s cancelled play included a rather miraculous par from Phil Mickelson at the famed 10th hole. That work is now null and void, something the Tour almost always tries to avoid.

We’ll update when the Tour updates but just the entire schedule for the first two days is now off and in flux until it stops pouring in Los Angeles.

The best regular season event on the PGA Tour schedule is this weekend in Los Angeles. This is inarguable. The major championships are not PGA Tour events. The Players operates somewhere in its own space as a fifth major but not quite a major. And then there’s everything else and among the everything else, Riviera is king.

The Genesis Open boasts an absolutely loaded field. It was already loaded before Tiger Woods and his foundation took the reins as tournament host a couple years ago. Prior to the foundation’s involvement, Tiger had taken Riv off his schedule for a decade or so. It was an unfortunate breakup, given that this is where he made his first PGA Tour start as a 16-year-old and it is technically his hometown event as a Southern California native. For whatever reason, Tiger just never had the success at Riv as some other places despite his continued refrain that he loves the course. But now that Tiger is involved, and healthy enough to play, an already deep field is supercharged with the biggest draw in the history of the game.

Beyond the field, there’s also Riviera. It is the best course on the regular non-rotating PGA Tour schedule. It’s a classic design with a bunch of fascinating holes that are interesting to walk in person and watch the best in the world play on TV. It is one of the few events that I would say are worth making a pilgrimage to, like you would some historic football or baseball venue. Make a weekend out of it and go to this tournament for a day like you would Augusta National. It’s that fun and cool to see in person.

So the field is stacked and the course is as good as it gets and then there’s Los Angeles. That does not hurt. It’s the only PGA Tour event all year in the area, which has also been devoid of a major championship for decades now (that ends in 2022 when LACC hosts the U.S. Open). This event has it all and it’s not just the highlight of the early season schedule, but the entire season schedule (non-major division!). Here are some nuts and bolts for Thursday’s opening round:

We’ll update when the Tour updates but just the entire schedule for the first two days is now off and in flux until it stops pouring in Los Angeles.

Thursday’s first-round tee times

SEE UPDATE ABOVE FOR SCHEDULE CHANGE AND DELAY UPDATES.

The first two days at Riviera are always a longshot to finish before dark in Los Angeles. You have a full field event playing on just one course during the time of year when daylight is still limited. That’s why three of the five west coast swing events are held on multiple courses before the cut is made. It helps ensure an on-time cut and the two that operate on just one course, Riviera and the Phoenix Open, often fail to finish before dark on Thursday and Friday.

The overnight rain and the rain in the forecast throughout the day do not help the already slim prospects of the round finishing before dark. They will start on time in the rain on Thursday but course conditions may worsen and force a delay at some point. It will be touch-and-go but here are your initial tee times for some of the marquee names in the field.

• 10:11 a.m. ET — Cam Champ / Bubba Watson / Dustin Johnson
• 10:22 a.m. ET — Phil Mickelson / Xander Schauffele / Jordan Spieth
• 10:32 a.m. ET — Hideki Matsuyama / Martin Kaymer / K.J. Choi
• 10:43 a.m. ET — Jimmy Walker / Vijay Singh / Tommy Fleetwood
• 3:11 p.m. ET — Keegan Bradley / Sergio Garcia / Sangmoon Bae
• 3:11 p.m. ET — Matt Kuchar / Bryson DeChambeau / Jon Rahm
• 3:22 p.m. ET — Tiger Woods / Rory McIlroy / Justin Thomas
• 3:43 p.m.ET — Davis Love III / Jim Furyk / Fred Couples

You can view the full list of tee times here.

Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images

Thursday’s first-round coverage

Barring no weather delays, you will be able to watch Tiger’s full round on Thursday from Riviera. Unlike last year, the Woods-JT-Rory trio is out in the afternoon wave to start the event. Their late tee time will come well within the Golf Channel broadcast window which, in all likelihood, will be extended past 6 p.m. to show Tiger’s full round on TV. If, for some crazy reason, they can’t or don’t extend the TV window while Tiger is out on the course, PGA Tour Live on NBC Sports Gold will be showing Tiger’s round on their featured groups stream. That runs until 8 p.m. ET to ensure they see Tiger’s complete opening 18.

In addition to the Tiger coverage, Golf Channel will also take down the paywall on Thursday morning for a free preview of their featured groups streaming on NBC Sports Gold. That free preview will simulcast on TV and also be available via a free stream. Here are all your media options for the day:

Television:

10 a.m. to 2 p.m. ET — PGA Tour Live free preview on Golf Channel

2 to 6 p.m. ET — Golf Channel’s regular broadcast coverage

Online streams:

10 a.m. to 2 p.m. ET— FreeGolf Channel simulcast of PGA Tour Live coverage

9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET— PGA Tour Live on NBC Sports Gold

• 9:30 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. ET — Free PGA Tour live stream on Twitter

Featured Groups (NBC Sports Gold) 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.

• 10:11 a.m. ET — Cam Champ / Bubba Watson / Dustin Johnson
• 10:22 a.m. ET — Phil Mickelson / Xander Schauffele / Jordan Spieth
• 3:11 p.m. ET — Matt Kuchar / Bryson DeChambeau / Jon Rahm
• 3:22 p.m. ET — Tiger Woods / Rory McIlroy / Justin Thomas

2 to 6 p.m. ET— Golf Channel simulcast coverage

2 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET— FuboTV stream (free 7-day trial)

Radio:

Noon to 6 p.m. ET — PGA Tour Radio on Sirius-XM (Ch. 92/208 and streamed here)